


An Upgrade

by Thoughtstream



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: Angst, Being a Cyborg is hard, Charlie gets a new arm, Cybernetics, Doing What's Required, Henchmen have feelings too, Kingsman the Golden Circle, Pain, Sacrifice, Training, Vignette, robotic arms, stoicism
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-14
Updated: 2018-02-14
Packaged: 2019-03-18 05:41:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 544
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13675410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thoughtstream/pseuds/Thoughtstream
Summary: It's the end that matters. Winning the fight against the Kingsman, against the world. It doesn't matter that Charlie will have to have his robotic limb torn off. That they will have to solder on a new one. That it will hurt. It doesn't matter because the new arm is a gift. An upgrade. And Charlie will use it to win. He just has to endure this first.Aka a sympathetic look at Charlie losing one arm and gaining another and what he might have thought about it.





	An Upgrade

          

            He’s sure there are ways to make it so it wouldn’t hurt. But you don’t join an organization that files down your teeth, burns away your fingerprints, and pours molten metal on your chest if you’re trying to avoid pain.

            His mistress requires that the arm be detachable. His mistress requires that the detachment appear forced and difficult: a terrible miscalculation, not a careful planting.

            His mistress requires that metal tear from skin, nerves from circuits, everything coated in a fine spray of blood as he struggles for his life.

 

            Afterwards, she offers him a new arm. A better arm.

            The “doctors” (roboticists?) strap him into a chair and push a guard between his teeth. No anesthetic. How else will they know if the nerves are intact?

            His mistress brushes the hair from his forehead and tells him it will be fine.

            They surround him with pliers and soldering guns. One of them places the new arm on a tray by his side, gleaming in the white light, waiting for him, fingers slightly curled. Then they descend upon the flesh/metal boundary of his former limb.

 

            Blood and sweat and metal and sparks and burns and cuts and… there is only this, his right arm swallowing the world with its phantom screams.

            It takes six hours.

 

            The new arm is larger, heavier. His paper skin and pulpy flesh feel hopelessly lopsided, outmatched. They needed it bigger, more space for weapons. He gives up on achieving symmetry.

            She comes to see him. To see it.

            He throws the bowling ball as hard as he can and it looks effortless, the destruction of an entire wall. She toasts his success.

            He feels the pull of his shoulder muscles, the spasms in his back, the heat where the circuits freshly joined are still weaving themselves together.

            At night he applies the gel her expressionless technicians give him. It offers a slight numbing, a little relaxation of the cramp that is his shoulder.

            The arm remains cold and alien. It sounds different than the old one, humming even as he’s falling asleep. He can’t lie on his left side anymore. The arm is too heavy. He can feel it on his chest, suffocating him.

            His mistress ignores the shadows beneath his eyes and he does too. It doesn’t matter, not when the end goal is so near. He sets out into the forest. And he practices where no one will hear him scream.

 

           **The funny thing about this little snippet is that I couldn't remember Charlie's name for the life of me after the movie. I didn't even like The Golden Circle that much. But that final fight scene with Eggsy got to me. Charlie had to endure a lot of pain: his family died in Valentine's plot, he lost his arm and his vocal chords, then he was given a robotic arm only to have it ripped off and replaced and then finally have it ripped off again. The arm was cybernetic too, which meant he had at least some feeling in it. Which got me thinking about how rough it might be out there for a cyborg. Which lead me to this. I hope you enjoyed it, let me know what you thought in the comments!**

 


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